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Kelly Racing has confirmed Matthew House as the new team manager for their Virgin Australia Supercars Championship campaign in 2020.
House was in the role over a decade ago but more recently has been in a production manager position with the team.
House takes over from Scott Sinclair, who departed Kelly Racing to spend more time with his family but has kept ties with the championship by taking up the independent position on the Supercars Commission late last year.
“Matt House was the team manager and currently is the team manager,” team owner Todd Kelly told Speedcafe.com.
“Given how well he performed at Adelaide – and the fact that the production side of the business is fairly under control now and easier to maintain that side of the business now that we’ve got through all that workload – he’s quite enthusiastic about coming on and doing the whole season.
“He did a spot on job in Adelaide, really worked well with the guys, so we’re actually not in a spot where we’re trying to find any person at all for any role in the team at the moment.”
Kelly said the restructure has been a relatively seamless process with only a few other minor personnel changes.
The other change of note is that of Dave Winstone, a crew chief and car controller who has become workshop-based in the production manager position formerly held by House.
It’s a strong dynamic, which if necessary, can see the pair be exchangeable in their roles and share the workload during the week given their similar experience.
Kelly said he was initially apprehensive about the restructure given the high intensity build of their Ford Mustang fleet, however, the transition has been relatively stress free.
“It really, really clicked with Giovanni (Colombo) being the engineering manager and Matt House being the team manager,” said Kelly.
“We just threw everyone together in the one garage, which is a recipe for disaster,” he joked.
“It’s basically brand-new cars, brand-new engines, and a complete brand-new team that tried to work together, but it couldn’t have gone better on the personnel side, so I don’t really want to mess with that.
“Matt is happy to continue in his role as a team manager at the track, so we’re quite lucky that we don’t have to find any staff now, which is good.
“Dave could come to the track and do Matty’s job, and Matty can do everything that Dave does at the shop as well.
“So, those guys are fairly interchangeable and make the whole thing fit quite well.”
Kelly Racing comes into the Beaurepaires Melbourne 400 sixth in the standings with one top 10 finish apiece for Rick Kelly and Andre Heimgartner.
The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship plays support to the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit over March 12-15.
